Jake walked slowly so as to let his girlfriend catch up to/with him.

Hi,

Yeah.

Clive

Angliholicto let his girlfriend catch up to/with him.

Personally I have never heard "catch up to him".

"Catch up with him" is a common error in this context. I would say: "so she could catch him up". "Catch up with someone" means to talk to them about what has happened in the interim period... or that something

Bokeh, I think you are thinking about an entirely different meaning of "catch up."

This is a physical closing of the distance. When the lead runner stumbled, the runner in second place was able to catch up to him, and eventually passed him, winning the race.

Or, as the OP said, he slowed down so she could catch up to him.

Grammar GeekBokeh, I think you are thinking about an entirely different meaning of "catch up."

This is a physical closing of the distance. When the lead runner stumbled, the runner in second place was able to catch up to him, and eventually passed him, winning the race.

Or, as the OP said, he slowed down so she could catch up to him.

Original Poster - i.e., you!

Grammar GeekBokeh, I think you are thinking about an entirely different meaning of "catch up."

Hi GG. "Catch up to" is not BrE and not in the OED. Maybe it's an American thing ;-)

According to the OED:
Catch up: "succeed in reaching a person who is ahead of one".
Catch up with: "talk to someone whom one has

How do you say, in British English, that someone "closed the distance" when one person was ahead?

Think the tortoise and the hare. What do you say the tortoise did when he got to where the hare is? We say he caught up to the hare.

Here are random examples that came up in a Google search.

So Guiliani has caught up to Romney in New Hampshire -

Has Microsof

Grammar GeekHow do you say, in British English, that someone "closed the distance" when one person was ahead?

Hi GG,

Many people would say "caught up with", but it's not what the OED says. I've not heard "caught up to" before but there are a lot of cases where we use different prepositions this side of the pond. In many cases the American choice

I would agree that "catch up to" hasn't yet caught on, in BrE; but I wouldn't myself object to "catch up with someone", in a motive context.

In fact, I would have taken the idiom "catch up with someone" (in the "news" sense) to be a metaphor from the "motion" sense.

MrP

Angliholic

Grammar Geek
Bokeh, I think you are thinking about an entirely different meaning of "catch up."

This is a physical closing of the distance. When the lead runner stumbled, the runner in second place was able to catch up to him, and eventually passed him, winning the race.

Or, as the OP said, he slowed d